Christian right

The Christian right is an informal political coalition in the United States that consists of conservative Evangelical Protestants and Catholics. The Christian right initially supported the Democratic Party (especially the Southern Democrats), and they supported Prohibition during the 1920s. However, the Christian right was won over by the Republican Party as its view shifted further right in the following decades. Mainline Protestants, Jews, and Mormons have also come to support the Christian right's social conservative stances, and the Christian right became a major force in politics during the 1970s as the result of the rise of televangelists such as Jerry Falwell. Today, the Christian right advocates school prayer, intelligent design, and the establishment of Christianity as the state religion of the USA, while it opposes the teaching of evolution in school, embryonic stem cell research, homosexuality, contraception, abortion, and homosexuality. The Christian right is now typically affiliated with the Republican Party, especially in the American South, the Great Plains, and the Mountain States.